Cardinal Baldisseri called the 300 conference participants, representing 80 different organizations, to enter into the synod process by reflecting on the preparatory document, called the Lineamenta. The document contains the final report from last October’s preparatory assembly (the Extraordinary Synod of 2014), together with 46 questions intended to facilitate its reception and examine the themes treated in it.

The Secretary General of the Synod called participants to consider carefully how devoted Catholic families can help those who are not living the “fullness of Christian marriage.” The mission of the organizations assembled, he suggested, could be deepened by evangelization efforts to those in irregular marital situations. Caring for wounded families, he said, demands a search for courageous pastoral choices……..

…..Why did the final Relatio published in the Lineamenta include the paragraphs on homosexuality, extra-marital cohabitation and Communion for the divorced-and-remarried that failed to gain the approval of the Synod Fathers in October? (Paragraphs 52,53,55 in the Italian; the English has a slightly different numbering system.)

“It was the Pope’s decision to include the points that did not receive the two-thirds majority,” Cardinal Baldisseri responded. “The Pope said: ‘These three points received an absolute majority. They were therefore not rejected with a ‘no,’ as they received more than 50 percent approval. [Well, I guess the Pope can make up whatever rules he wants, but the 2/3 majority is a protection built in to keep popular but dangerous pastoral approaches from being approved. It was contrary to the synod’s own rules.] They are therefore issues that still need to be developed. We as a Church want a consensus. These texts can be modified, that’s clear. Once there has been further reflection, they can be modified.”

The Cardinal also informed us that the 46 questions published in the Lineamenta were the work of both the General Secretariat and the 15 members of the Council of the Secretariat. Responses are due April 15th. [Questions that were apparently challenged and rejected by many of the family organizations as leading and inappropriate.]

Asked if the Pope had reviewed the questions before they were published, the Cardinal replied: “The documents were all seen and approved by the Pope, with the approval of his presence. Even the documents during the [Extraordinary] Synod, such as the Relatio ante disceptatationem [the preliminary report], the Relatio post disceptationem [interim report], and the Relatio synodi [final report]were seen by him before they were published.”

So the Pope was quite aware of the content of the Relatio, including, it must be surmised, its very problematic parts, before the fact. That would tend to cast extreme doubt on the claim made by some that Archbishop Forte’ – author of the midterm report, obviously written weeks or months before the actual Synod – kind of slipped those extremely dangerous phrases in without the Pope’s knowledge or approval.

It also demonstrates that the perception many had at the time, that all this wildness at the Synod was being directed by the Pope and Cardinal Baldisseri, was, almost certainly, the case. It also further explains many of the reports at the time at the extremely strong negative reaction some of the more orthodox Synod fathers apparently had towards the Pope himself. I won’t go into those now, but some of them were apparently quite heated.

There is a broader point to discuss here. Many held the view that because the Synod fathers did not approve these novel and potentially heterodox statements, a substantial victory had been achieved. That was my initial hope, as well, but having reflected on the matter for some months and seeing the rhetoric coming from sources like Archbishop Kupich, Cardinal Marx, and others, if there was a victory, it was a very small and probably temporary one.

Cardinal Marx, leader of the German conference of, it must be said, no longer orthodox bishops, said that they never expected full approval of all the verbiage in the Relatio at the first session but will push for much more at the second one. He said it was an enormous victory for the forces of modernism (OK, I added that last bit) to even get such a subject on the table for discussion. For the first time in history, an official Church document – of the most dubious authority, it is true, but the vast majority are ignorant of that fact – says that the Church should examine opening up Communion to adulterers and that those drawn to acts of sodomy have special “gifts.” This is utterly unprecedented language. Coupled with Cardinal Maradiaga-Rodriguez’ recent harangue in California, assuring his largely progressive audience that the revolution has only begun and that Vatican II would pale in comparison to the changes that will be implemented shortly, I think it clear that the progressive elements do not feel they suffered any great setback and believe they still have the whip-hand. We’ll see what develops, God willing, it won’t be much, but at present most signs still indicate grave danger ahead.

I think they believe they can achieve their objectives without recourse to an ecumenical council. At present, they are presenting the Synod as nearly that, in terms of authority, even though, a conclave of only a small portion of bishops meeting with the pope is of dubious authority. So maybe they will go that way, we’ll see. For now, I think they believe they can make the gains they desire without going to that length. And who knows how long Pope Francis will be around? Councils take quite a while to set up, typically.

[…] down to the decades old struggle regarding Vatican II as all-trumping super-dogma (demanding, it seems, endless novelty) and its compatability with the 2000 year practice of the Faith. That struggle has taken a […]